We’ve been up early the past few days, not a big deal. However, it hit me the other day when I woke up extra early to write my blog entry, that you guys don’t want to read the play-by-play of what I’ve been up to. Well, everyone besides you, mom. Jay has been doing an incredible job updating everyone on what’s been going on with the race. That said, I figured I would take my blogging opportunity to tell everybody three new things I learn each day. I always ask my friends to tell me about the most interesting thing they’ve learned in a given day and figure now it’s my time to enlighten you guys, whether you like it or not.
The first thing I learned on day one had to be that you can actually lose a person on their bike while following them in a van going less than 20 mph. This happened twice! At first I just figured it was the fact that Kyle and I were driving and navigating respectively…Mayo, Skids, Rick, Ravi and Miller have some experience with Kyle and I not being the best pilot/co-pilot combo. Anyway, our new friend Naty, pulled our van over from his bike and had told us that we had lost Darrell, another newly found, totally hilarious friend we encountered on our trip. So we doubled back a number of times, driving around LA like the city was about to collapse and soon found out that Darrell had hopped in a car to meet the team at the next checkpoint.
We then lost Walt. However, this was a total misunderstanding. Nobody knew where Walt was, so we were sent to track him down. Being the oldest rider on our trip, and it being early our first day, we figured maybe Walt was trailing behind a bit. Boy were we wrong. Turned out, Walt had actually cruised well in front of everybody else and was trucking it down the mean streets of LA. Funny thing is that he hasn’t let up since and might be one of the craziest (crazy in the good way) guys I’ve ever met. Everybody should get a chance to meet Walt, our new best friend and one of the most impressive guys I’ve ever had a chance to meet.
Which brings me to the second lesson I had: always be prepared for surprises. I learned that some of the most successful people in the country still like to act like they’re in college and can, again, be completely crazy. First example is our new friend Darrell, a very successful doctor, whose socks were giving him a hard time and insisted that he ride the rest of Day 1 with bare feet. Along the same lines is our buddy Naty who lost his sandal somewhere in our Day 1 travels and wore one sandal with one biking cleat out to dinner that night. It was such a treat to hang out with Frank and Bruce’s riding club, The Silverbacks, for the first ride of our trip. They are such a fun bunch of guys who love to make fun of each other and drop a record breaking number of four-letter words. I hope that wasn’t the last we’ve seen or heard of all those guys.
The third thing from Day 1: sending postcards is really fun. Kyle and I got back to the hotel and went straight to the lobby. Looking through postcards and picking out the ones that remind you of your best friends can be a really good time. I suggest everybody try it on their next trip, or from home. All of you lucky people that will get your postcards from Day 1 will know what we are talking about and the rest of you will know soon…
